Forsaken Short Film: Getting Started

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Written by James de Paula Hanika

Getting started with a new film project is an exciting time. As much as we would all like to get out there with a camera and an idea, there are some important stages to go through before we get out into the street. Pre-production is all about preparation. It’s about defining the rules and planning the shots. It’s getting creative so that the shoot goes along at a reasonable, but sensible rate and making sure that you get everything you need to tell the story. Planning includes involving the people you will need to make the film. Actors need to know where they have to be at what time. Locations have to be arranged, along with any insurance if the location is a private one. Of course, taking a camera and a couple of actors out in to the street is all good and all, but what are you going to shoot and will you remember all of the shots you need? Low budget film making should be no different to multi-million budget epics. Planning is important, because you will finish up with a much better quality product, which people will appreciate more. It is also about learning the craft and getting better at what you do and the films you make.

Sometimes you will need to shoot a test of a particular shot or effect, if only to prove that an idea will work. This is an important stage on the project. YouTube is full of poorly staged and executed mini movies, and most of them are a couple of kids in a backyard having fun. These films are unlikely to end up on a film festival roster.

Many years ago, and I really do mean many, I was involved in a small group who made war movies in the woods with a couple of 8mm cameras and a belt full of plastic weapons. Our first movie was really poor, and probably not worth the cost of the film. We made it up on the spot, and what great fun it was. Our second film was a little more involved, and we would start to plan a few scenes which had in-camera effects. [No After effects in those days.] We didn’t know it then, but this was our first experience of pre-production.

The Forsaken short came about from a number of visual effects tutorials we had made with effectsportal.net and submitted for use on the Microfilmmaker Magazine website. This suited us well, because most of our projects included a great deal of ingenuity and little money. We were contacted by Jeremy Hanke, at MicroFilmmaker magazine, in late January 2010 who asked if we would be interested in the new franchise they were developing, called the World of Depleted. A post-apocalyptic world in which a series of mysterious attacks trigger governmental overreaction and radical civil uprising.  The chaos and mob mentality that make up this uprising leads to the destruction of health and technological networks, the breakdown of modern society and, in the resulting year, a global deathtoll of nearly 90%.

This was an exciting opportunity. We agreed to produce a short film of approximately ten to fifteen minutes that, over the coming year, could help to support their project, have some fun ourselves, as well as be up for consideration for inclusion as part of the official marketing canon of the World of Depleted.

The biggest initial obstacle for a film is a story. You can’t get very far without a subject matter and, ultimately, a script, Our immediate need was for a good base storyline to develop. Our first approach was to come up with five very short outlines that could work, and which fitted the limited resources we had, both in terms of actors and locations available. Sometimes only a sentence or two, these outlines gave us something to discuss and to spark ideas.

  • An attack by a gang of looters results in a quest to find medical supplies.

  • A man makes his way back to his former home to find a picture of his family.

  • The life of a family as they avoid the perils of the surrounding city

We decided that the story should follow a single person, allowing us to make the majority of the film with a very small crew of two or three, with key action sequences that could be filmed in a single weekend. We also needed to devise ways of showing a largely empty, damaged world, and we would do this with the help of digital effects software like After Effects and Photoshop, or by getting up extremely early in the morning. It took a week or so to settle on a particular arc, and the outline script was written on a single sheet of paper.

Continue reading... writing the script

Forsaken Short Film: Storyboarding

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Written by James de Paula Hanika

Storyboarding is an important stage in pre-production. In fact, storyboarding is probably THE most important part of this initial creative stage. A script will indicate both staging and action. It describes the content of the scene, the characters in the scene, the dialogue, and the general atmosphere of the film. Storyboarding takes those elements and to them you add the audience’s point of view. Storyboarding allows you to plan each shot and each sequence in some detail. This stage is vital to work out camera angles and how to accomplish certain effects shots. For instance, the above mentioned car chase will require a ix of medium and close up shots, but the action and suspense of the sequence will require you to design the shots and how they go together. The action of the chase will be combined with the action between the characters, and the wrong edit will slow a scene down and render the sequence uninteresting.

Storyboarding does not require you to be a fabulous artist, only that you can sketch a reasonable image that your team can understand for the framing and angles required. A head can be an oval. A car can be a box. If you can find someone with the talent, a well drawn storyboard can be a vital addition. I began to storyboard the shots and to work out how we were going to film each one, what the treatment should be, and if there were any effects required. At times, you will have to go off and create a few test shots to make sure that a specific effect or staging will work, but this can be really good fun and put some energy into the project.

Storyboarding allows the low budget filmmaker the opportunity to mould the scenes to the restrictions in place, and to let creativity and ingenuity bridge the gap. I rewrote a number of scenes from the discussions we had over the staging of a scene during the storyboarding stage. This largely involved adding additional shots for more closeups or long shots. Sometimes, we added a very specific dolly shot to make a point or to get an important feel to the scene. Every shot is storyboarded. It is also a good place to start that important props list, location list and actors in a scene.

We started filming the opening scenes in April 2010. In the next article, we discuss cameras, dollies and the importance of a clapper.

Forsaken released today

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Our latest project is finally open to the world and we hope everyone enjoys the short. As on any film project, a great deal of work has gone into it. We would like to thank all those involved and we ask for constructive comments on the YouTube channel.

You can see the World of Depleted status and full film at: Four58 WoD contributor page

Forsaken has been submitted for review

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Forsaken, our latest short film, has been submitted to the World of Depleted panel for review. Created specifically for the Depleted franchise, the last few weeks have been long and busy. The film script was started almost a year ago, and the production has taken a touch longer than we originally planned. The 16 minute short follows a lone man who travels back to his former home after the devastating collapse of society and the basis of civilisation around the world.

Now we wait to see if the film is taken up as part of the Depleted franchise and to what degree. More than anything, we hope the film is enjoyed. We put a great deal of effort into it. In the coming week, we hope to put a 15 minute version on our YouTube channel.

Forsaken Trailer

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We have been working really hard on Forsaken, editing, visual effects, music and its really pulling together. Hopefully the full film be released in February.

Watch the trailer for Forsaken. Hope you like it and comment below (watch it in HD!)

Forsaken Short Film: Fight scene crew and actors

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We would like to thank all of those involved in the recent filming of the finale fight scene. Forsaken has been an interesting journey. A week ago, after a great deal of trouble finding a location, we shot the major fight scene finale. This included five crew, six actors and 40 bullet holes.


After a lot of pre-coreography ideas, we arrived at the factory about 10:30 on the Sunday morning. We had to dress the set a little for the key sequences that would include four deaths and an exploding oil barrel. All digital, of course.

Before we got on with any of the filming, we walked through the scenes with everyone, so they all knew where we needed to be and at what time in the sequence. This also allowed the actors to understand what their characters would be doing individually before they were systematically killed off. Aarh, the joys of post-apocolyptic movie-making.

SLUMP: Production photos

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SLUMP- 48 Hour Film- Introduction

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We collected the film brief in the walled herb garden of Park Hill park. After an introduction from the organiser, we were each handed two boxes; one we picked the genre, and the other we chose two 'items' that had to  feature in the story. Our genre turned out to be comedy, and the two items we ended up with were Blanket and Skip.

We now had 48 hours to script, film and edit whatever idea we came up with.

We headed off the the nearest coffee shop to come up with ideas. That has to be one of the most creative walks we have had in weeks. Jules, who is only 11, came up with a couple of very interesting ideas that we worked with and expanded on. Ben is a passionate effects creator, so it was important to come up with a number of scenes that stretched his creative needs.

It was fairly obvious that Jim was going to star in this production. Firstly, he was crazy enough to do some pretty daft things and, secondly, there wasn't anyone else! A strong coffee, or chocolate in Jules' case, and we had the basis of the 5 minute movie. On the walk home, Jim found the huge skip at the side of the Nestle building, which was remote and out of the way enough to keep our small crew out of people's way. Ben sourced a few of the things we needed, like a kitchen cupboard!, and Jim wrote the outline script based on the ideas and draft we had put together in the coffee shop.